Ordering in certainly isn't the most popular option for Mother's Day. A survey from the National Restaurant Association last year said that only 8% adults planned to get takeout or delivery for the holiday. Still, maybe those folks have the right idea. You might have to work a little to make the atmosphere special — bring on those flowers and dress up! — but it can also be much less stressful and mundane than those crowded restaurants full of other dutiful families.
The folks at GrubHub would like to encourage this new tradition, and to that end, they crunched some curious numbers. The site thought we might like to know which brunch dishes got the biggest Mother's Day boost. That is, these are things people order in more than they do on any other Sunday of the year.
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Nationwide, the top 10 are:
1. French toast
2. Blueberry pancakes
3. Belgian waffle
4. Eggs Benedict
5. Everything bagel
6. Chicken and waffles
7. Crepes
8. Chocolate chip pancakes
9. Country fried steak & eggs
10. Banana pancakes
If you were to open a restaurant, I suppose this is handy information to know before planning Mother's Day menus, except it looks like pretty much every typical American brunch menu.
Maybe it's more helpful to look at the regional faves. In the Midwest, for instance, the Mother's Day winner is a croissant breakfast sandwich, followed by potato pancakes, corned beef hash, and veggie omelets. Now this is starting to shape up like a good list of suggestions for what to order if you're surprising Mom, which, come to think of it, you can even do when you don’t live in the same city as her.
In the South, the most Grubhub growth is seen in blueberry pancakes, hash browns, Challah French toast, and Belgian waffles. Now, I'm starting to judge these people, because wouldn't it be better and just as easy to make all those yourself? Pancake mix exists for a reason, guys.
In the Northeast, the No. 1 item is French toast and bacon. See above and learn to soak a slice of bread in egg batter, because that is so much better hot off the griddle. But the next choices — toasted bagel, cheese Danish, and bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwich — make some sense if there's a really good bakery nearby and you'd rather not wait in line.
I'm really worried about the moms out West, however. People are ordering country-fried steak and eggs, biscuits and gravy, glazed donuts, and chicken and waffles for the holiday. All of those are indeed delicious items, few of which I could make at home as good as a restaurant. And yet — with the exception of donuts — these are all going to arrive at your home a cold, soggy mess. Do you people not like your moms over there? Didn't she sacrifice enough for you?
OK, perhaps I'm seeing the point of the restaurant trips after all. Or, you know, maybe just ask her what she wants to do.